Following his incident in Bahrain, Mercedes have had to replace his gearbox due to damage it sustained. This means he will receive a 5- place grid penalty for the Chinese Grand Prix.
Despite this setback, Hamilton is going into the race in a positive way and is confident he can challenge for the win:
“It doesn’t mean I can’t give [Rosberg] a good run for his money from wherever I start. I’ll be pushing as hard as I can… It doesn’t mean I can’t win the race, which is my thought process, rather than damage limitation.”
Mercedes changed the gearbox as they didn’t want to risk a retirement and, with one of the longest straights in F1, Shanghai is one of the easiest tracks for overtaking.
See the current championship standings here.